Fuel Savings

At Hirschbach Motor Lines, an 850-truck-and-growing refrigerated fleet based in East Dubuque, Ill., the goal is “to become the most fuel-efficient fleet in the trucking business while providing best-in-class service to our customers."

Fleet use of technologies to reduce costs is nothing new. Along with increased productivity and efficiency, cutting fuel costs was a big reason fleets adopted technologies such as automated routing and dispatch, GPS tracking and mobile communications.

When we’re talking about on-highway trucks, there are opportunities in aerodynamics, low-rolling-resistance tires, “downspeeding” and other strategies to save fuel.
But when you’re talking delivery trucks, work trucks, vans and the like, the strategies are different. Below are four approaches to improving mpg for mediums.

Trucking operations generally don’t invest in technology with the sole purpose of becoming “greener.” For most fleets, the decision is prompted by a desire to improve operational efficiencies, customer service and the bottom line.

Traditional thinking on automated manual transmissions has it that AMTs are the great equalizers – bridgers of skill gaps between the best and the worst drivers in the fleet. While that’s still true, AMTs now bring even more to the fuel-economy table, offering fuel savings in their own right beyond what even the most professionally driven manual transmission could accomplish.

There aren’t many things less aerodynamic than a box. And a dry van trailer is basically a 53-foot box on wheels. The drag caused by that box and its effect on fuel economy is a challenge that has been taken up by the SuperTruck program.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments is partnering with Cascade Sierra Solutions to open the region's first Freight Efficiency Outreach Center, designed to give the trucking industry education and programs to improve efficiency, save money and reduce its impact on regional air quality.

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